Martí, who stepped onto the podium in both races held in Sakhir, and Hadjar, who finished fourth, aim to stay in contention for top positions in the FIA Formula 2 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit
With no time for rest, Campos Racing confronts the second round of the FIA Formula 2, taking place this very weekend in Jeddah, the port city on the shores of the Red Sea. The Valencia-based outfit will once again field their two Dallara F2 cars for Pepe Martí and Isack Hadjar, who will seek to maintain the same competitiveness they displayed in the first two races held in Bahrain just a few days ago.
The season opener had an eminently positive character for Campos Racing and its drivers sporting the Red Bull colours on their single-seaters. In qualifying, Hadjar already demonstrated his one-lap speed by securing his presence on the front row of the grid in a session made extremely challenging by changing conditions due to strong winds. Subsequently, in the races, Hadjar finished fourth in the first race while in the second, the longer one where he started second on the grid, he had to retire after a collision at the first corner with a rival.
For the Spaniard Martí, the weekend unfolded with a script opposite to that of his teammate. After having to start eleventh, as he couldn't extract the most out of his second set of tyres in qualifying, the Barcelona-born driver showcased incredible maturity in both races. Despite it being his debut, Martí managed the strategy perfectly and, above all, tyre wear. This is how he achieved a third place in the sprint race and finished second in the feature race with mandatory pit stop to change tyres.
After the first two races out of the twenty-eight that will be held in 2024, Martí occupies the second position in the overall standings with 24 points to his name and is also the best rookie so far. Hadjar is tenths at the moment. Meanwhile, in the team standings, Campos Racing sits in second place with 29 points.
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit has been the venue for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in F1 since 2021. With its 6.174 meters in length, the Jeddah track is the second longest on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps. The aspect in which this track leads is the number of corners, totaling 27, which do not give the drivers any respite. Like most Arabian circuits, it undergoes significant improvement as the rubber is laid down, characterized by being not very abrasive. Therefore, the tyres do not suffer excessively, and engineers usually opt for low aerodynamic load setups on the single-seaters to ensure the highest possible straight-line speed.
Both free practice and qualifying sessions will take place on Thursday at 10:55 and 16:00 respectively. Friday’s Sprint race is scheduled at 16:10 with Saturday’s Feature race taking place at 14:25. All times are CET.
Adrián Campos (Team Principal of Campos Racing): "After the fantastic start to the season we had in Sakhir, we want to continue in the same vein in Jeddah. We are very pleased with the pace we showed both in qualifying and especially in race pace. We achieved setups that worked very well for us in long stints, which is crucial in this championship. Jeddah is a really challenging circuit, but considering how strong we were last week, I hope we can replicate that performance again this time and once again score the maximum number of points possible. If we also manage to step onto the podium again, even better."
